Respect Equality

‘Anti-feminist’ lawyer suspected in fatal shooting at N.J. Judge Esther Salas’ home

A view of the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. on July 20, 2020 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, was shot and killed and her husband, defense attorney Mark Anderl, was injured when a man dressed as a delivery person came to their front door and opened fire. Salas was… Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Story at a glance

  • Esther Salas, a New Jersey judge appointed by former U.S. president Barack Obama, was tapped just days ago to preside over the high profile Deutsche Bank case involving the late Jeffrey Epstein.
  • On Sunday night a man posing as a FedEx worker invaded her home, killing her 20-year-old son and wounding her spouse.
  • The primary suspect in the case is lawyer Roy Den Hollander, who left a case that Salas presided over last year regarding a men-only military draft.

It had been less than a week since Judge Esther Salas was assigned to oversee a high-profile lawsuit brought by investors against Deutsche Bank that her home was invaded and her 20-year-old son was shot.

Salas’ son, Daniel Anderl, opened the door on Sunday night for who he thought to be a FedEx delivery man. The attacker shot Daniel Anderl through the heart before wounding Salas’ husband — attorney Mark Anderl. The main suspect, California lawyer Roy Den Hollander, was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rockland, N.Y., about two hours away from the scene of the incident along with a package addressed to Salas.

Den Hollander, a self-described “anti-feminist” attorney who filed a number of unsuccessful cases for what he called “men’s rights,” also described himself as a Trump volunteer in his voluminous writings. The former lawyer, who was 72-years-old at the time he committed apparent suicide, had met Salas previously during a case that involved an all-male military draft. 

Salas, who did not throw out the suit, instead allowed it to proceed through the court system, yet Den Hollander was still upset by what he considered to be Salas’ delaying of the case. He complained that she allowed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file its fourth motion to dismiss it, suggesting she was “trying to keep this case in her court until a weatherman showed her which way the legal winds were blowing.”

He eventually exited the case for what he alleged to be a terminal illness in June 2019, handing it over to a team of lawyers at the large New York-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. According to CNN, the firm already knew of his history of pushing anti-women viewpoints, but saw the case as an opportunity to fight for equal rights for women.


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“We were not going to let Mr. (Den) Hollander’s private views as expressed anywhere interfere with our taking over the case from him and going forward with it,” said Nick Gravante, Boies Schiller’s managing partner. Gravante said he didn’t know of any anger Den Hollander had for the judge or why he had worked on the case to begin with.

A dark corner of the internet

In his writings, Den Hollander called Salas an “affirmative action” case — one who affiliated with those who wanted “to convince America that whites, especially white males, were barbarians, and all those of a darker skin complexion were victims.”

“Female judges didn’t bother me as long as they were middle age or older black ladies,” Den Hollander writes. “They seemed to have an understanding of how life worked and were not about to be conned by any foot dragging lawyer. Latinas, however, were usually a problem—driven by an inferiority complex.”

The attorney also penned lengthy documents on his website, in which he would express his sour feelings towards women, especially against his mother who he calls “a Nazi loon” and a witch. On page 1,776 of his PDF, he writes: “The Feminists should be careful in their meddling with nature. There are 300 million firearms in this country, and most of them are owned by guys.”

Suspected of another murder

Following Sunday night’s incident, federal agents are now exploring whether Den Hollander played any role in the murder of Marc Angelucci, a men’s rights lawyer who was shot dead in southern California earlier this month.

The Associated Press (AP) reports that the shooting of Anderl bore similarities to Angelucci’s murder, as in both incidents the suspect posed as a FedEx driver before opening fire. Investigators are currently examining Den Hollander’s financial and travel records, as well as the misogynistic manifestos he posted online in order to determine whether he was possibly involved in the death of Angelucci.

  


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